Dodgers fall to Cubs; Carl Crawford plays in minor league game

Chris Capuano was charged with five runs and six hits in 4 1/3 innings Thursday as the Dodgers fell to the Chicago Cubs, 8-1, at Camelback Ranch.

“I had a little trouble with the fastball command early in the game today,” Capuano said.

Capuano served up a three-run triple to Welington Castillo in the first inning. He gave up three hits and hit a batter in a two-run third inning for the Cubs.

Capuano said he felt his command improve as the game progressed. He pitched a perfect fourth inning and retired the only batter he faced in the fifth.

Even with most of their projected starting position players in the game, the Dodgers were limited to four hits. They didn’t score until the ninth inning, when Juan Uribe doubled to center field to score Elian Herrera.

“It’s one of those days,” Manager Don Mattingly said. “It feels like we’ve been here a long time, you know? Our drill work was pretty good this morning with our defensive stuff. Then we got into offensive rotations and it just seemed like it was no energy. And it seemed just like that out there to me. I’ve got a feeling it’s not just us. But I still don’t like it because I think you get bad habits like this. If you don’t play with some energy, you get bad habits. We can’t do that. You have to push yourself through this.”

Earlier in the day, Carl Crawford had six at-bats in the Dodgers’ minor league game against Meiji University of Japan. Crawford batted for both teams.

Crawford played catch after the game, doing so for the first time since he was shut down two weeks ago.

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